Relation between serum uric acid and carotid intima-media thickness in healthy postmenopausal women

OBJECTIVE: Serum uric acid (SUA) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). However it is still disputed whether the relationship is mediated by other risk factors such as obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and insulin resistance. We explored the association of the uric acid level with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), a well known marker of CVD, in postmenopausal healthy women. METHODS: We consecutively enrolled postmenopausal women undergoing a screening for health evaluation. After an accurate clinical examination, and a biochemical evaluation, the enrolled subjects underwent B mode ultrasonography to assess common carotid intima media thickness. RESULTS: Among 234 women aged 45-70 years, the uric acid level is associated with carotid IMT independently of other prognostic factors (p=0.03). In particular, women in the highest tertiles of uric acid level have a greater IMT than women in the lowest tertile (p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Independently of other cardiovascular risk factors, SUA levels are associated with carotid IMT even in subjects without the metabolic syndrome. This confirms and expands the role of uric acid in the determinism of CVD. Prospective trials would be useful to evaluate interventions aimed at lowering the uric acid level

Posted: The Campaign Sign Landscape, Race, and Political Participation in Mississippi

Cultural landscapes offer potential insights into cultural processes. As a cultural/political landscape element, the domestic campaign sign is linked to a variety of socio-cultural and political processes. Examination of the geographical distribution of 2004 presidential election campaign signs posted throughout the town of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, illustrates that race is a factor in understanding who chooses to post signs. Historically, limitations on political participation in the South would have included use of landscape for communication, imposing a sort of metacommunicative landscape hegemony. Further, patterns of sign postings and voter turnout indicate that both activities are forms of political participation that are embraced differently by different social groups

Armadillo and the Viking spirit: military names and national myths in transnational military interventions

Danmark har spillet en ny og aktiv rolle i transnationale militære interventioner siden afslutningen på Den kolde krig. Denne ph.d.-afhandling belyser én dimension af denne militariseringsproces: heltegørelsen af militæret. Formålet er at undersøge relationen mellem militær heltedyrkelse og dannelsen af national identitet i Danmark i perioden fra 2. Verdenskrig til den vestlige invasion af Afghanistan. Til dette formål stiller jeg følgende forskningsspørgsmål: Hvordan er danske diskurser om militær heroisme bundet op på større historiske processer og sociale strukturer? Jeg belyser dette spørgsmål ud fra tre historiske perspektiver: 1) forandringer i de ydre relationer mellem Danmark og andre stater, 2) forandringer i de indre relationer mellem den danske stat, dets forsvar og borgere, og 3) forandringer i den nationale selvforståelse, herunder nationale idealer og værdier. Afhandlingen består af en generel introduktion og fire artikler.Den første artikel bidrager med en kort diskussion af forskellige teoretiske perspektiver på helte, helteforestillinger og heltedyrkelse. Selvom sociologien og beslægtede discipliner har beskæftiget sig med heroisme siden 1800-tallet, er der kun sparsomme forsøg på at diskutere de forskellige vinkler på helte som et socialt og kulturelt fænomen. På den baggrund, diskuterer jeg helte-begrebet inden for fire tematiske områder af litteraturen. Det drejer sig om studiet af store mænd, heltenarrativer, heltegerninger og helteinstitutioner. Artiklen fremhæver de individuelle og strukturelle dimensioner af heroisme og belyser litteraturens begrebsudvikling, der i grove træk har bevæget sig væk fra en eksklusiv brug af heltetitlen om gudelignende figurer i historien og myter til mere ‘demokratiske’ tilgange, der også inkluderer ‘almindelige’ mænd og (en gang imellem) kvinder i heltekategorien. Artiklen forbinder herudover litteraturen om helte med klassiske temaer i sociologien. Disse temaer indbefatter forholdet mellem struktur og aktør, historiens drivkraft, udgangspunktet for menneskelige handlinger og dannelsen af kulturel betydning. Artiklen gør hermed opmærksom på heroisme som et seriøst videnskabeligt genstandsfelt, der har relevans for en bredere diskussion af kultur- og samfundsvidenskabelige teorier. Som et bidrag til denne diskussion, belyser de følgende tre artikler, hvordan betydningsmæssige og sociopolitiske strukturer spiller ind på den sociale konstruktion af helte.Den anden artikel placerer staten i centrum af analysen af den sociale konstruktion af helte.Hvis vi ønsker at forstå, hvorfor bestemte heltediskurser opstår og opnår legitimitet, er det ikke nok, argumenterer jeg, at undersøger hvordan personer, grupper, handlinger eller værdier anerkendes som særligt heroiske inden for et samfund, da heltegørelsesprocesser er bundet op på relationerne mellem stater. Jeg forklarer, hvad Norbert Elias mente med staten som en ‘overlevelsesenhed’, og hvordan dette begreb kan bidrage til vores forståelse af helteprocesser med et teoretisk perspektiv, der fremdrager internationale dynamikker til at forklare fremkomsten og transformationen af specifikke heltefigurer og -diskurser. Heltegørelsen af militæret i Danmark tjener som et illustrativt eksempel herpå. På baggrund af en analyse af danske statsministres nytårstaler i perioden 1940-2015, viser jeg hvordan fejringen af danske soldater som helte er forbundet med en forandring af dansk national identitet og promoveringen af professionalisme, selv-motivering, individuelt ansvar og globalt udsyn som borgerdyder siden 1990erne. Artiklen forsøger at illustrere, hvordan promoveringen af soldaten som en national rollemodel med disse egenskaber har været bundet op på en gradvis udvikling af konkurrencestats- og sikkerhedsstatsstrategier, som har beskyttet, men også forandret, den danske velfærdsstat i kølvandet på øget internationalisering.For at undersøge rækkevidden af den officielle politiske diskurs om danske soldater, fokuserer de efterfølgende artikler på diskurser, der udgår fra militæret. Tredje artikel behandler hærens håndtering og erindring af faldne. Artiklen tager udgangspunkt i en analyse af de nekrologer som hæren har publiceret til minde om danske soldater, der blev dræbt i 2. Verdenskrig og under missionen i Afghanistan. Den komparative analyse viser, at en ‘god’ militær død ikke længere betragtes som et patriotisk offer, men i stedet legitimeres ved at appellere til den faldnes unikke moralske værd, humanitære idealer og høje professionalisme. Denne appel er på linje med den officielle politiske diskurs, som med tilsyneladende stor succes har legitimeret danske tab i Afghanistan. I modsætning til den grundlæggende antagelse i litteraturen om ‘post-heroisk krigsførelse’, er der således ingen grund til at konkludere, at statens ideologi og nationale idealer ikke længere er i stand til at legitimere militære tab. Heltegørelsen af danske faldne i Afghanistan viser derimod, at modernitetens ‘meningsorden’, eller hvad Peter Berger har betegnet ‘nomos’, faktisk kan understøtte, og ikke udelukkende underminerer, idealer om militær selvopofrelse. Artiklen foreslår derfor at Danmarks tab i Helmand har affødt en post-patriotisk heltediskurs i stedet for en post-heroisk krise.For at komme nærmere i hvilket omfang denne post-patriotiske heltediskurs karakteriserer hæren i dag, undersøger fjerde og sidste artikel et vigtigt element af soldaternes kultur: navngivning. Ny forskning har vist, at navne på baser, enheder, operationer og våben spiller en vigtig rolle i demonstration af magt, legitimering af krig og dannelsen af samhørighed blandt soldater. Denne artikel viser hvordan en sådan navngivningspraksis indgår i en bredere meningskonstruerende proces, eller hvad Hans Blumenberg har betegnet ‘myte-arbejde’, da navnene fungerer som primære redskaber i dannelsen, reproduktionen og transformationen af grundlæggende kulturelle fortællinger. Baseret på et casestudie af danskerne i Afghanistan, illustrerer artiklen hvordan navnet på basen Armadillo, og troppernes brug af vikingenavne så som Odin, Valhalla og Vidar, har bragt fortællinger om national oprindelse, heroiske gerninger og kriger-æt ind i soldaternes hverdag i det fremmede land, hvor et ‘myte-landskab’ voksede frem og ændrede sig i respons til situationen på landjorden og krigens udviklingsforløb. Artiklen understreger hermed vigtigheden af nationale narrativer som en kilde til betydningsdannelse i transnationale militære interventioner, og påpeger herudover en diskrepans mellem den postpatriotiske heltediskurs, som er blevet brugt af danske politikere og militærledere i officielle sammenhænge, og en krigerdiskurs blandt tropperne i Afghanistan, hvor der bl.a. er sket en revitalisering af nationalromantiske heltemotiver.Since the end of the Cold War, Denmark has played a new and active role in transnational military interventions. This dissertation illuminates one feature of this process of militarisation. The objective is to explore the heroification of the Danish military, focusing on the historical relationship between military heroism and national identity between World War II and the 2001- 2014 War in Afghanistan. To this end, I pose the following research question: How are Danish discourses of military heroism bound up with larger historical processes and social structures? I explore this question from three historical perspectives: 1) changes in the external relations between Denmark and other states; 2) changes in the internal relations between the Danish state, its military and its citizens; and 3) changes in expressions of national belonging, ideals and values. After a general introduction, I present four papers.The first paper provides a brief history of social theories about heroism. While the sociology of heroism goes back at least to the eighteenth century, surprisingly little work has been done to summarise the different attempts to understand this phenomenon. On this basis, I discuss the conceptualisation of heroism in four thematic strands of this literature: the study of great men, hero stories, heroic actions and hero institutions. In the course of this discussion, I extrapolate the individual and structural dimensions of heroism, while elucidating the theoretical trajectory of the literature, going from a restricted usage of the title ‘hero’ to reference god-like figures in history and mythology to more ‘democratic’ notions, which embrace ‘ordinary’ men and (sometimes) women within the hero category. Moreover, I connect the hero literature with classic themes in social theory. These include the relationship between individual agency and societal structures, the cause of history, the locus of human behaviour and the production of cultural meaning. Bringing together the predominant approaches to heroism, while calling attention to the relevance of this phenomenon for the mainstream of social theory, this paper places the following three analytical papers within a broader discussion of theory and society. As a contribution to this discussion, these papers aim to strengthen our understanding of how ideational and socio-political structures impinge upon the social construction of heroes.To this end, the second paper brings the state into the centre of the study of the social construction of heroes. If we wish to understand why specific notions of heroism emerge and attain legitimacy, it is not enough, I argue, to consider how individuals, groups, deeds or virtues are recognised as heroic within society, since heroification processes are bound up with larger dynamics between states. I explain what Norbert Elias meant by the state as a ‘survival unit’, and how this concept can advance our knowledge of heroes with a theoretical perspective that foregrounds the dynamic figurations in the international system of states to explain the emergence and transformation of specific heroic figures and discourses. The heroification of the Danish military is a case in point here. Through an analysis of prime ministers’ New Year addresses from World War II to the western campaign in Afghanistan, the paper connects the rise of the soldier hero in Denmark to the elevation of professionalism, self-motivation, individual responsibility and global outlook into civic virtues since the 1990s. Utilising Elias' survival unit, I argue that this elevation has been preconditioned by the gradual development of ‘competition state’ and ‘security state’ strategies for protecting the Danish welfare state in the wake of growing international interdependency.To test the scope of the political discourse on Danish soldiers, the two following papers explore discourses of heroism within the Danish Army. The third paper explores the army's remembrance of dead soldiers. This is done on the basis of an analysis of the obituaries produced by the army in memory of Danish soldiers killed in World War II and in the recent campaign in Afghanistan. Here I show that a ‘good’ military death is no longer conceived of as a patriotic sacrifice, but is instead legitimised by an appeal to the unique moral worth, humanitarian goals and high professionalism of the deceased. This appeal is essentially in line with the political discourse found in the previous papers, and so there is no reason to assume - as seems to be the case in the literature on post-heroic warfare - that the state's ideology and the civic virtues of contemporary society are no longer capable of legitimising the death of soldiers in war. Hence, the Danish case illustrates that the predominant order of meaning, what Peter Berger has called ‘nomos’, may underpin and not per default undermine ideals of military self-sacrifice today. On this basis, the paper proposes that the fatalities in Helmand have invoked a sense of post-patriotic heroism instead of a post-heroic crisis.To further bring home the prominence of discourses of post-patriotic heroism in today's forces, the final paper turns to a more elusive way of meaning construction: naming. A new body of literature has shown that names given to military bases, equipment, operations, sites, units and weaponry play an important role in the demonstration of power, the legitimisation of war and the formation of cohesion in the ranks. This paper argues that such naming practices form part of a broader process of meaning construction, or what Hans Blumenberg has termed the ‘work on myth’, since names work as principal devices for creating, reproducing and transforming cultural narratives. Based on a case study of the Danish experience as part of Task Force Helmand, the paper explores how the name of the base Armadillo, and Viking names such as Odin, Valhalla and Vidar, have brought stories of national origin, heroic greatness and warrior ancestry into the banal space of life abroad, where a mythscape has grown and changed in response to the situation on the ground and changes in the wider figuration of the Afghan War. On this basis, the paper stresses the fecundity of national beliefs, ideals and values as a source of meaning in transnational military interventions, but it also brings into focus a discrepancy in the discourse of warrior heroism among the men on the ground, and the political-military discourses of post-patriotic heroism predominant in the public sphere in Denmark